vocaloidfandomcom-20200222-history
User blog:Angel Emfrbl/My thoguhts on design - part 2
User_blog:Angel_Emfrbl/My_thoughts_on_Vocaloid_designs... Continue on from above.... I broke this up due to the amount of designs I'm having to go through, in the last version I may C+ P all the previous versions together. For now... I'm breaking them up. my net connection is in the process of upgrading so I can't risk bulk editing right now anyway. When I'm done I'll also do my top 10/meh/least list... So just because I rate a design low, doesn't mean I don't like it, do note that. Vocaloid 2 cont. *'Prima' (Chinese); Okay so this is the first design that ever gave me mixed feelings. It mostly has to do with the fact that the avatar choice didn't reflect the voice, which I always felt showed a confident tone. The avatar looks also young for the way the voice sounds, when the original stock image feels more of a match and is doing it with less effort. Since the design is "original" as per say, I have to give it credit for standing out... Though I'm left with mixed feelings about the actual design. I like the soft tones, its just doesn't feel like it was the best choice for Prima, especially due to the previous stock image again, giving a more match-image. There are also some parts of it that leave some questions... The leaf for instance suggests that the image went for a more "nature" theme, but then the "tail" is techno a little... Overall... I'll give this a 6/10. *'Camui Gackpo'; So here we have one of the most unique designs for Vocaloid. Aside from the fact the original art could leave on not familiar to Gackt not realizing thats a man, there isn't much wrong with the overall design. So taking notes from Miku and the Kagamines, Internet co went for the "cyber on normal" clothes routine. The design is balanced and kinda reminded me of Tron the first time I saw it. The brighter colours make sure that Gackpo not only stands out, but remains there and with currently no other vocaloid using the Samurai design, Gackpo has managed to hold his uniqeness by default due to being the only samurai. And even if we do get another, they would then have a lot of effort being mistaken for Gackpo due to those aforementioned bright colours. Even then, his overall shoulette is unmistakable so colours aside, one can tell who he is based on shape. Its going to take a look to produce a Gackpo clone, which is why it hasn't happened and likely won't in a hurry. I also think there is a lot of detail in the character and overall think its a well blended design. My only complaint is that the art can have such softness to the shading that it comes hard to distinguish one colour from shading at times. 7/10 *Kagamine Act2;.... Not a lot to say here... Some art fixes that plagued the original... Lets face it the original art for them was some of KEI's worst offences as an artist. But with no major impact on the design I can't rate it any higher then the original. This isn't about how GOOD the art was either... 5/10 *'Gum'i; So we move onto Gumi. Gumi represents a step in another direction and is a retro-futuristic approach. By default, this means her design is a little dated; but this is also not a bad thing. A lot of the problems with the design falls. They maintained the idea of distinct colouring and gave Gumi bright orange and green colours, with white as an accent. While the art itself is a little funny (the face is the worst,, but the legs aren't much better), the design is pretty neat. Overall its a cute design with some balance and avoids *some* of the tired cliches that Miku and the Kagamine's resorted to. Gumi's a pretty distinct design as well, though her silhouette isn't so distinct anymore due to how many vocaloid females there are, so Miku has this advantage over her regardless. The design is not as detailed as Gackpo's, and is a lot more simpler. 6/10 *'Sonika' (original); So moving away from the use of Stock images, but not from the essence of what they brought comes the first CGi of any Vocaloid. I don't agree that the CGi image was "ugly" as honestly? I've seen far worst. But the style was really basic and felt "mid-90s" in terms of detail. There wasn't a lot of effort put to make something awesome, which is what let the image down. The whole thing was basic. And whether or not anyone liked it, Sonika looked too close to Gum due to the teal-green hair and the yellow top. I don't ness. think this was done on purpose but was a accident "kinda". Its likely due to the fact the renderer was told "anime girl" as a guide and wasn't given much to expand upon. From memory in my early days, Anime/manga was defined by the outragous bright hair colour by many. This was due to the fact most early exposure many had was fantasy/sci-fi games and anime where hair could be every shade of the rainbow, especially the girls. I mean JRPG was a common genre in the 90s on many of the iconic consoles. Unfrotantely regardless I've seen her mistaken for Gumi for every design, so this will always rank her down due to a lack of distinction. 4/10 *'Sonika' (vers.2); so hear comes the first design aimed to truly be "sexy" on purpose with the "sex" tropes littered all over the place. The design itself is fine, the problem was the artist took things in many cases 1 step too far. To put it in a nutshell, Sonika is gorgeous in this design in the face, but perhaps too "perfect". We have this tattoo that is distracting due to its size and bright colours. I did say a lot of the problems with Sonika was that what she looks like then wouldn't last, but her outfit isn't quite out of fashion yet, but there was a huge risk that she would be dated within a few years. Being no expert of fashion, I wouldn't like to say if she is wearing the "in" fashion though. I think if the GOOD choices in this design had been kept and she just lost the "bad" things would be good. I remember putting a poll up on the main page where Sonika was among the top 5 most attractive or best designs, the Kagamines were the only ones above her. S the design speaks for itself, it was pleasing regardless of the bad and the art was nice to boot. 6/10 *'Sonika' (Taiwan vers.1); having the msot designs puts Sonika as one of the most difficult to approach. Overall... I think this is a little less disappointing then the second design, but really its a simplified version of it. 6/10'' *'''Sonika (Taiwan ver.2); So here we see more significant design choices while making yet another image based on the same design. this feels a little more balanced and takes the original art its based on and balances out its flaws. It goes to demostrate what slight tweaks to a concept can produce and improve. 7/10 *'Megurine Luka'; Luka by default has the advantage of being the only "unique" concept of the CV series. She isn't based upon the school kid design and has a thoughtful concept. In short this was the most effort put into any KEI drawn vocaloid at this point. So naturally, this makes Luka's design overall "better" then the previous ones despite re-using some aspects of their designs. The only thing I's argue is that her design isn't distinct enough to seperate her from her fellow vocaloid, especially as over time this has become more notable. She sufers heavily from the black/grey design issue but has some nice gold highlights, in this case the black makes her more elegant. 6/10 *'SF-A2 miki'; Miki suffers from the problem of "being unique does not make you useful". She is an anroid; you can tell that. The trouble is so is Miku. Whereas Miku has no joints, miki does and when put side by side, Miki's design makes her feel a step down from Miku. This is the problem with sharing a concept design with an existing vocaloid. The choice to not have boobs in this version left a few mistaking her for a boy (believe it or not) and the overall design was too close to the later Piko design. The colours were distinct and for her day, visibly she stood out. 6/10 *'Kaai Yuki'; Okay next we get to our only schoolgirl concept Its unique, but a little bit boring. The red and hair is complimenting and she stands out from modern Vocalodis just because of her design concept. You won't mistake her for Ryuto or Oliver, in short. Overall I'd give the design 5/10, which at this point is my most common ranking. *'Hiyama Kiyoteru'; A teacher as a concept to go with our schoolgirl. As a contrast to Yuki, its a nice design. But this could be passed off as other concepts and has less to really talk about then Yuki. He could have been a business man, a IT worker or whatever... the design doesn't scream what he is and falls short because of it. And due to his design, its only the colours seperating it from every other design in a full outfit. We have a couple of trouser wearing, jacket vocaloid, so every vocaloid with this will have a similair silhouette shape and without seeing the full design, none of these vocaloid stand out. Very little effort was put into making him look like a character that didn't like he just walked out of a "slice of life" style manga. 4/10 *'Big Al (original)'; Okay so this is better done then Sweet Ann's but a little too 1960s. It was creepy by default and honestly... I'll agree with it. I like the design as the posters from the era all of the PowerFX vocaloid imitated were kinda neat... Its just he looks like what my dad would likely have worn for this period, if he had been 40 at the time. I know that being out of date can be a marketing tool, since when something that is not in fashion can be frozen from impacts of trends and allow itself to find its own niche... But this lets the design down in this case. I don't find it scary and think it suited the voice it was meant to go with... At least... 4/10 *'Big Al' (vers. 2); So this was the design that "sold" Big Al to many and proof that even to those who claim it doesn't, are impacted by the designs of Vocaloid. Trust me, I saw certain members pf VO reacting to this design change... They CAN'T claim they AREN'T impacted by design because they WERE impacted at the time by Big Al's redesign. This marks the first step in direction change for English Vocaloid. It takes the concept of the "Frankenstein Monster" and modernizes it. Al's design has lasted as an appeal to many, though to be fair on the guy, he and his voice have been like Marmite; you either love or hate it. His stitches are balanced by the ammo belt on his waist, suggesting that he is a "tough" guy, yet he doesn't like like one. He looks "friendly". So this was the thing that gave me the overall impression of a "protector figure" and its why many PowerFX vocaloids have been depicted as looking up to Big Al as a "father" figure by fans. And this is the impression he gaves a lot to the viewer. The design itself has the same problem of standig out, due to the fact there isn't a lot of varition of design between male vocaloids. '''5/10 *'Big Al' (taiwan); the voice and design do not compliment each other and the glasses make him look dorky. The sycthe is about the only notable thing about his design that I like, and you can't say that the manly voice is going to suit a vocaloid that age. It looks as well like they tried to take notes from Gackpo, though there is no "Samurai" vibe. this is another case of "being distinct... " and it falls flat overall. Saying that... This is actually a "wasted" design. Think about this... Had this been for a new vocaloid altogether, it would have been fine. Me thinks the demo that the ecapsule first showed for Big Al was given to the artist. If anyone recalls, this suffered from pitching Big Al too high. As a consquence... they may have gotten the wrong impression about what kind of voice he was. 4/10 *'Sweet Ann' (taiwan); I forgot about this one. So here was have a distinct and balanced design with primary white as the main colour. I'd argue this design hasn't got as much "fun" behind it as the original boxart had (lol) and is so pretty its boring. They at least took the "bride" aspect of "Bride of Frankenstein" and ran with it and it makes for a ver nice, distinct design. The short version aside... I give this; 7/10 Category:Blog posts